Text File

(Slip Opinion) Cite as: 531 U. S. ____ (2001) 1

Per Curiam

NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the preliminary print of the United States Reports. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash- ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES _________________

No. 98942 _________________

WILLIAM FIORE, PETITIONER v. GREGORY WHITE, WARDEN, ET AL. ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT [January 9, 2001]

PER CURIAM. Petitioner, William Fiore, was convicted of violating a Pennsylvania statute prohibiting the operation of a haz- ardous waste facility without a permit. After Fiore's conviction became final, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court interpreted the statute for the first time, and made clear that Fiore's conduct was not within its scope. However, the Pennsylvania courts refused to grant Fiore collateral relief. We granted certiorari in part to decide when, or whether, the Federal Due Process Clause requires a State to apply a new interpretation of a state criminal statute retroactively to cases on collateral review. In order to determine if that question was in fact pre- sented, we asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court whether its decision interpreting the statute not to apply to conduct like Fiore's was a new interpretation, or whether it was, instead, a correct statement of the law when Fiore's conviction became final. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, responding to our certified question, has now made clear that retroactivity is not at issue. At the same time, that court's interpretation of its statute makes

2 FIORE v. WHITE

Per Curiam

clear that Fiore did not violate the statute. We conse- quently find that his conviction is not consistent with the demands of the Federal Due Process Clause. See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307, 316 (1979). I This case, previously described in greater detail in our opinion certifying the state-law question to the Pennsyl- vania Supreme Court, 528 U. S. 23 (1999), arises out of William Fiore's conviction under a Pennsylvania statute that prohibits "operat[ing] a hazardous waste" facility without a "permit." Pa. Stat. Ann., Tit. 35, §6018.401(a) (Purdon 1993); see Commonwealth v. Fiore, CC No. 8508740 (Ct. Common Pleas, Allegheny Cty., Pa., Jan. 19, 1988), App. 6. The Commonwealth conceded that Fiore in fact had a permit, but argued that Fiore had deviated so dramatically from the permit's terms that he nonetheless had violated the statute. And the Commonwealth's lower courts agreed. See id., at App. 4344; Commonwealth v. Fiore, No. 00485 PGH 1988 (May 12, 1989), App. 99100 (affirming Fiore's conviction on the trial court's reasoning). The Pennsylvania Supreme Court declined to review Fiore's case, Commonwealth v. Fiore, 525 Pa. 577, 575 A. 2d 109 (1990), and his conviction became final. There- after, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed to review the conviction of Fiore's co-defendant, David Scarpone, convicted of the same crime at the same time. The Su- preme Court reversed Scarpone's conviction on the ground that the statute meant what it said: The statute made it unlawful to operate a facility without a permit; one who deviated from his permit's terms was not a person without a permit; hence, a person who deviated from his permit's terms did not violate the statute. Commonwealth v. Scar- pone, 535 Pa. 273, 279, 634 A. 2d 1109, 1112 (1993) (de- scribing the Commonwealth's interpretation as "a bald fiction we cannot endorse").

Cite as: 531 U. S. ____ (2001) 3

Per Curiam

Fiore, unsuccessful in his subsequent state-court at- tempts to have his own conviction set aside, see Common- wealth v. Fiore, 445 Pa. Super. 401, 665 A. 2d 1185 (1995), appeal denied, Commonwealth v. Fiore, 544 Pa. 623, 675 A. 2d 1243 (1996), brought a federal habeas corpus action. The District Court granted the writ, but the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed. 149 F. 3d 221 (1998). The Court of Appeals believed that the Pennsyl- vania Supreme Court, in Scarpone's case, had announced a new rule of law, inapplicable to Fiore's already final conviction. Id., at 227. And, the Court of Appeals said, "state courts are under no [federal] constitutional obliga- tion to apply their decisions retroactively." Id., at 222. We granted certiorari to determine whether Fiore's convic- tion was inconsistent with the Due Process Clause. II Because we were uncertain whether the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision in Scarpone's case represented a change in the law of Pennsylvania, we certified the fol- lowing question to that court: "Does the interpretation of Pa. Stat. Ann., Tit. 35, §6018.401(a) (Purdon 1993), set forth in Common- wealth v. Scarpone, 535 Pa. 273, 279, 634 A. 2d 1109, 1112 (1993), state the correct interpretation of the law of Pennsylvania at the date Fiore's conviction became final?" 528 U. S., at 29. We received the following reply: "Scarpone did not announce a new rule of law. Our ruling merely clarified the plain language of the stat- ute. . . . Our interpretation of [§6018.401(a)] in Scar- pone furnishes the proper statement of law at the date Fiore's conviction became final." Fiore v. White, 562 Pa. 634, 646, 757 A. 2d 842, 848849 (2000) (citation omitted).

4 FIORE v. WHITE

Per Curiam

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's reply specifies that the interpretation of §6018.401(a) set out in Scarpone "merely clarified" the statute and was the law of Pennsyl- vania- as properly interpreted- at the time of Fiore's conviction. Because Scarpone was not new law, this case presents no issue of retroactivity. Rather, the question is simply whether Pennsylvania can, consistently with the Federal Due Process Clause, convict Fiore for conduct that its criminal statute, as properly interpreted, does not prohibit. This Court's precedents make clear that Fiore's convic- tion and continued incarceration on this charge violate due process. We have held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment forbids a State to convict a person of a crime without proving the elements of that crime beyond a reasonable doubt. See Jackson, supra, at 316; In re Winship, 397 U. S. 358, 364 (1970). In this case, failure to possess a permit is a basic element of the crime of which Fiore was convicted. Scarpone, supra, at 279, 634 A. 2d, at 1112. And the parties agree that the Common- wealth presented no evidence whatsoever to prove that basic element. To the contrary, the Commonwealth, con- ceding that Fiore did possess a permit, see Brief for Re- spondents 1, necessarily concedes that it did not prove he failed to possess one. The simple, inevitable conclusion is that Fiore's convic- tion fails to satisfy the Federal Constitution's demands. We therefore reverse the contrary judgment of the Third Circuit and remand this case for proceedings consistent with this opinion. So ordered.